Avid Elixir Brake Lever Installation

Depending on what country you are from and where you are living, it is entirely possible that your bike store will have the brake levers set up on the opposite side than you are used to. “Not a worry”, they say, “we can swap them over for you right away, it’ll only take a minute”. Chances are they take off the grips, slide the brake levers off of the bars and change them over. When I bought my Trek Session 8 here in Whistler last season, this was indeed the case.

Avid Elixir brake levers however, use a specific locking system that may catch your “everyday”, non pedantic mechanics out. The brake levers are designed in a way so the clamp that holds the lever onto the handlebars should sit flush with the lever body on the top, while having a gap on the bottom.

You may have never noticed before, but the clamp on your Elixirs should have arrows on them, and these arrows should be pointing upwards. As the mechanic changes the levers over, the clamps become upside down.

Avid suggest that the clamp bolts should be torqued to 2.8-3.4 N·m, however I find that this tightens the lever rock hard to the bars. Given the somewhat fragile nature of brake lever bodies, I like my levers to move in the event of a crash, so I find I’m was best tightening the top bolt to around 2.0 N·m, and just “firm” on the bottom. Using a torque wrench on the bottom bolt at all left the levers “locked on”.

Of course I’m in no way suggesting that you should run your levers with “play” like I do, I’m sure it voids a warranty somewhere.

I hope if nothing else this has been interesting. Most people I talk to about this don’t have a clue – just like I didn’t when I first heard about it. Between this and my clear taping cranks post I’m beginning to sound like a pretty pedantic bike owner aren’t I!?

For reference, check out the official Avid Elixir Manual.